I know, I know…it is just a teaser but tomorrows post will have the entire tree and the goodies all wrapped underneath! The star on top of the tree just wasn’t cutting it for me this year, I had a specific vision in mind and I wanted it at minimal cost. White & gold were this years colours and I used 1/2 of the ornaments I already owned and mixed them with a few new ones. A sweet friend of mine picked up the little mini owls for me, I swear in a few months this house will be borderline owl-lady courtesy of my friends and family. The larger owls are from this years Martha Stewart line at Home Depot for $7 that can be hung or clipped on as if being perched (I of course chose perched), the gold garland $2, the pine cones were $1 for a bag of 12 (I had zero time to pick and paint them or I would have) and the burlap + birch ornaments are actually my mother-in-laws from a wedding she decorated making them free. And now about the bow, I am absolutely infatuated with it and the fact that it only cost me $2! I can hear all of my fellow Kate Spade fans swooning now. I mean what’s not to love about a big, fat sparkly gold bow as a tree topper? I grabbed two small gold bows as well to add some sparkle to our living room mirror…for a dollar! All in all decorating the tree differently this year cost us less than $25. The DIY banner was of course my favourite part of putting our tree together, I simply had to have a white french banner made of wood & twine. Naturally I wanted to make the banner myself and I am so proud of the finished product (for only $10!). I rounded up the letters I needed at Walmart that were oddly enough on sale for $0.69 from $1 and Craig picked me up some silver sparkles…I requested dust but can’t knock the guy for trying. We already had a can of white spray paint here at home and I have bucket loads of twine around here as it is used for nearly all of my crafts. I sprayed these suckers outside in the freezing cold (a lovely 10 second drying time), sprinkled them and brought them in to meet the twine & glue gun. I tend to do most of my crafts late at night when Ella & Craig sleep so there are no distractions and I can enjoy some tea (and actually drink it while it’s hot), this banner took less than 20 minutes to make, the time consuming bit is finding that perfect placement on the tree…